NOVEL WEB Interlude 4 (A Divine intervention)
[Unknown holy chorus] “Freya, goddess of the lower planes, you are brought here to face a punishment befitting your crime of meddling in the affairs of the moral world.”
In front of a space, countless species, balls of lights, and beings of unknowable origin filled the endless rows of seats, a seeming never-ending confusion of voices cried out in mockery as the floating ball of light in front of a woman delivered her sentence.
The woman was hung, helpless, her arms and legs bound, and her face marked with signs of pain and weakness, despite the glowing chains wrapped around her, her eyes held strong, not flinching at the orb in front of her nor at the countless cries of mockery coming from the rows beside her. She held her face straight ahead as she started to smirk wondering why all this fanfare was necessary when her sentence had been long since decided. The woman was what could only be said to be beautiful, with her golden hair and pure white dress, it would have made an appealing scene if any of the observers cared for such things, but they were far too focused on the conviction to notice.
Moving against her chains, the woman's face took on a gentle smile, slyly casting an annoyed gaze at the floating ball in front of her, she wanted to start cursing that this whole thing was a waste of time, but considering the circumstances she held her breath. Her mind loosely wandered back over and over to the soul she had met before, her thoughts set on getting this farce over with so she could check up on that interesting little thing. Luckily for the woman, snuffing out the clatter of millions of noises; the ball began to speak as the golden chains wrapped around the woman forcing her to kneel in reverence, or well at least outwardly, inside her mind was filled with rants about these crappy gods in front of her.
[Unknown holy voice] “Oh Holy Progenitor, do not need to tell you the extent of your sentence nor do I need to tell you the penance which must be paid to correct it. Go forth and do my will; the space of the mind must be cleansed from the unclean, which seeks to ascend from its filth into our higher realm.”
As the white court once more filled with sound, the cheers of the voices around her resonated at the words of the high god. She could only kneel in consternation as the chains of light around her began to drag her out of the space, the space falling away as she was thrown out from its pearly gates.
As her body was limply returned to her own divine space, she could only sigh as the chains around her were released. Waving her arms to steady herself, she lightly mumbled to herself, the space around her seeming to retreat from her complaints as she mimed dusting herself off, though her body was entirely spotless.
[Freya] “Huh, that was something, did they really need to chain me up? I mean, come on, where was I going to go anyway? I came there of my own will.”
Ranting at no one in particular, the woman started to ready herself, flipping over her shining golden hair. Her body started to glow as it began to split apart in golden rays, which spiraled up into the space like so many butterflies, moving out of her realm. The wisps of light warped with a flash turning into a blinding ray as they arrived at a point in space, the wisps starting to coalesce once more into the woman’s form.
Looking deeply into the void, she couldn’t help but frown, her usual joking attitude replaced with one of quiet sadness. In front of her was what was once a planet. Now only a rotted ball of flesh and thought, the life on the surface having all been absorbed and eaten away at, till there was nothing left but the writhing mass of mortal will in front of her. In the next moment, as if sensing her presence, the entire planet seemed to react, wriggling with giant motions as if trying to show off its newfound might to the intruder who dared to step into its presence. Massive tentacles made of a strangling darkness split wildly through the planet into the empty space above. Each slash cut through the void like massive clubs crushing any deprived in orbit around them into nothingness as they shot to surround their target, but to her, this display was only pathetic. Stealthily she watched the tentacles close in around her. Not even bothering to move, she could almost hear the echo of screams pouring out from the planet, begging in one insatiable voice for blood.
Sadly she was in no mood to grant their wish. Suddenly the space around her gained a new blackness as she was completely surrounded, one of coiling limbs darting her to the point that she was little more than a speck of dust shot from the pile seeking to devour her where she stood. Yet no matter how far or fast it struck, it couldn’t manage to move any closer. Not deterred, more tendrils joined in the attack. After a moment passed they recoiled away from her. A shockwave like a howl shot out from the planet as if it was asking how the strange woman had survived, with tendrils on the surface starting to stretch into space slowly approaching her. With a smirk, she decided to answer it out of courtesy, though she might embellish a little bit.
[not sure what to write]
In the next moment, instantly, she could sense millions of tentacles writhing through space towards her, but she didn’t move, hardly paying attention to them. On her face, a blissful smile; she had needed to vent some stress from her trial, and unlucky for the creature, it seemed it had become the target of her annoyance.
Large golden wings sprouting from her, she sped forwards past the tentacles which would never be able to reach her. Using her hands, she cut down hundreds, the space around her filling with distorted cuts as she rent the tendrils from space crushing them in her own realm.
In fear, of this unknown power the creature sent more and more tendrils of darkness up from the bowls of the planet the surface now entirely cracked, using all the knowledge it had learned in the abortion of life, it tried desperately to stop her, the tendrils clawing at space itself to try to reach her, ripping and tearing apart the universe in a desperate struggle, but it was useless. The woman didn’t even seem to notice, more focused on finding new ways to destroy the creature in front of her than worried about its attacks. Finally growing bored, the woman frowned once more, her face slowly changing to one of disinterest, as in tandem the space around the creature began to distort. The creature could feel something was wrong; the small speck in front of it had made it feel pain, and something it had long ago forgotten, fear. In one last desperate attempt, the creature tried to move its celestial body out of the space, its massive bulk shifting to throw itself off its own orbit, however before it could, the normal blackness of space began to change swallowing the massive being as it transformed into an empty white void, the planet in front of her now dwarfed by the size of her divine realm. Her mind was not even on the task at hand as she idly began to cut at the being, the tumor in front of her. Without care, It was steadily being cut down, the fleshy sphere crying out as waves of light washed over it. Her sarcastic expression stained with happiness as the tumor, or rather the new god, was cleansed. Its last cry, a heartbreaking curse of regret, moved the woman who only spoke coldly to herself.
[Freya] “I’m afraid you could never be allowed to ascend like this. After all, you cheated, didn’t you?”
The white space disappeared. The light of stars returning as if to pay respect, blinking slowly. The woman turned away, leaving only an empty space where that planet once stood.
Returning to her own realm, the woman smiled as she could finally check up on that soul she helped out a bit. She would have appreciated it being a bit more thankful, but she supposed from the last message she received from it, it was at least doing well enough to complain. Her body separated into the many lights again as she started towards the planet she had meant to put her on. From what she remembered upon last checking there, it had been a place of lush life and beauty, so she had no idea why the soul was so upset. Well, it had come from Earth, so it might be one of those types who enjoyed wasting away. But still! For all she had done for it, even going so far as to break a taboo among the gods to give it some of her power, it could be a little more grateful to her, maybe just worship her once or twice, well maybe a few more times. Teasing thoughts in her head, she arrived at the planet only to find that something was wrong; the soul wasn’t here. Rather, when she went to where she felt her power was, it was somewhere completely different. And worse than that, the power she had put into it seemed to have been getting stronger; her soul integrity was starting to restore through means outside of her own power, which meant she must have somehow absorbed more divine power. Panicking, she started trying to teleport to her position only to be met with interference by something. She wasn't sure what it was, but she’d need some time to get through it, muttering to herself all she could hope was that she was able to get to the soul before anything else, for both hers and its sake.